Micah 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens with a city under siege and Israel's judge struck on the cheek, then turns to Bethlehem Ephratah, the small town from which a ruler for Israel will come, one whose origins are from ancient days. He will shepherd the people in the LORD's strength, and he will be their peace when Assyria invades; leaders will be raised up and Assyria's land will be struck. The remnant of Jacob is pictured among many peoples both as dew that waits for no one and as a lion no one can rescue prey from. The chapter closes with the LORD saying he will remove horses, chariots, fortified cities, sorcery, and idols from among his people, and take vengeance on the nations.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • The daughter of troops is commanded to act: the verb means either to muster in troops or to gash oneself in mourning, and both readings stand
   • Someone has laid siege against the speakers
   • They will strike the judge of Israel on the cheek with a rod
2. 5:2
   • Bethlehem Ephrathah is addressed
   • Bethlehem Ephrathah is little among the clans of Judah
   • Out of Bethlehem Ephrathah one will come forth for the LORD
   • The one who comes forth is to be ruler in Israel
   • The goings forth of this ruler are from of old, from ancient days
3. 5:3
   • Therefore he will give them up
   • The giving up lasts until the time when she who is in labor has given birth
   • After that, the remnant of his brothers will return to the children of Israel
4. 5:4
   • He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD
   • He will shepherd in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God
   • They will dwell secure
   • He will be great to the ends of the earth
5. 5:5
   • This one will be peace
   • Assyria will come into our land
   • Assyria will tread in our citadels
   • We will raise seven shepherds against him
   • We will raise eight princes of men against him
6. 5:6
   • They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword
   • They will shepherd the land of Nimrod, either within its gates or with drawn blades, the wording allows both
   • He will deliver us from the Assyrian
   • The Assyrian comes into our land
   • The Assyrian treads within our border
7. 5:7
   • The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples
   • The remnant of Jacob will be like dew from the LORD
   • The remnant of Jacob will be like showers on grass
   • The dew and showers do not wait for man
   • The dew and showers do not linger for the sons of men
8. 5:8
   • The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations
   • The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples
   • The remnant of Jacob will be like a lion among the beasts of the forest
   • The remnant of Jacob will be like a young lion among flocks of sheep
   • The young lion, when it passes through, tramples down
   • The young lion tears in pieces
   • No one can rescue from it
9. 5:9
   • Your hand will be lifted up over your adversaries
   • All your enemies will be cut off
10. 5:10
    • This will happen in that day
    • The LORD declares it
    • The LORD will cut off your horses from your midst
    • The LORD will destroy your chariots
11. 5:11
    • The LORD will cut off the cities of your land
    • The LORD will throw down all your strongholds
12. 5:12
    • The LORD will cut off sorceries from your hand
    • You will have no more soothsayers
13. 5:13
    • The LORD will cut off your carved images
    • The LORD will cut off your standing pillars from your midst
    • You will no longer bow down to the work of your own hands
14. 5:14
    • The LORD will uproot your sacred poles from your midst
    • The LORD will destroy your cities
15. 5:15
    • The LORD will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations
    • The clause 'which they have not heard' attaches either to the nations, who did not obey, or to the vengeance, which is unheard of

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

"Daughter of troops" is a Hebrew way of naming a city by what characterizes it (here a town full of soldiers, being told to muster. A "judge" in Israel was a ruler with legal and military authority, not only someone who decided court cases. Striking a man on the cheek with a rod was a deliberate public humiliation of someone who could not fight back; doing it to a nation's leader made the shame national. Note also that Hebrew Bibles number this verse as 4:14, so Hebrew 5:1 is verse 2 here) a source may cite "Micah 5:1" and mean the Bethlehem verse.

5:2

Ephratah (Ephrathah) is the older name for Bethlehem and its surrounding district, added here to distinguish this Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem, from another town of the same name up north in Zebulun. Bethlehem was the hometown of David, so a ruler coming from there means a ruler from David's line and David's obscure village rather than from the capital. The KJV's "thousands" translates a Hebrew word that means both the number and a clan or militia unit of about that size, the point is that Bethlehem was too small to count for much. "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" is deliberately open in Hebrew: the words can mean his family origins go back to ancient times, or that his origin is from eternity, and translators have divided over it for centuries.

5:3

"Give them up" means abandon or hand over, leave the people to their enemies for a time. Hebrew does not say who "she which travaileth" is, and readers have taken it as the mother of the coming ruler, or as the nation itself pictured as a woman in labor; the text leaves it open.

5:4

Calling a ruler a shepherd was standard political language across the ancient Near East, not a comment on his gentleness: kings of Israel, Assyria and Babylon were all called shepherds of their people. "Feed" in the King James English means to pasture a flock, i.e. to rule and provide for.

5:5

Assyria was the dominant empire of Micah's day, based in what is now northern Iraq; it destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and besieged Jerusalem, and its name here stands for the invading superpower. "Seven... and eight" is a Hebrew numerical figure of speech (a number, then one more) meaning an ample supply, more than enough, not a headcount. "Shepherds" again means rulers or commanders.

5:6

Nimrod is the hunter and city-builder of Genesis 10 who founded cities in Mesopotamia; "the land of Nimrod" is a poetic second name for the same Assyrian-Babylonian territory. The phrase the KJV renders "in the entrances thereof" is uncertain in Hebrew: the same consonants can mean the land's gates or entryways, or a drawn blade, hence the differences between translations.

5:7

In a country with a long rainless summer, dew was not a decoration but a real source of moisture that kept crops alive. The point of "tarrieth not for man" is that dew and rain arrive without being summoned, worked for, or controlled by anyone.

5:8

"Gentiles" in the KJV simply translates the Hebrew word for nations or peoples, everyone who is not Israel. It carries no other sense here.

5:9

"Cut off" is a stock Hebrew expression running through the rest of this chapter; it means removed, wiped out, put an end to.

5:10

Horses and chariots were the heavy weaponry of the age, the expensive strike force a king relied on, not ordinary transport. Removing them, along with the fortresses in the next verse, strips away the nation's military hardware.

5:11

Strong holds are fortified towns and walled defenses. In this list, cities are named for their walls: they are counted as part of the war machine.

5:12

"Witchcrafts" and "soothsayers" cover the ordinary business of divination in the ancient world: reading omens, casting lots, interpreting dreams and signs to predict events or influence them. "Out of thine hand" pictures these as tools held and used, like anything else being confiscated.

5:13

A "graven image" is an idol carved from wood or stone. "Standing images" are matzevot, upright stone pillars set up at places of worship to mark the presence of a god; they were a normal fixture of Canaanite shrines and often of Israelite ones too.

5:14

The KJV's "groves" translates asherah, a wooden pole or stylised tree set up beside an altar, representing the goddess Asherah. They were planted upright in the ground, which is why the verb is "pluck up": you uproot them.

5:15

"Heathen" is the KJV's word for the same Hebrew term rendered "nations" elsewhere in this chapter. The last phrase is genuinely ambiguous: the Hebrew can mean vengeance of a kind the nations have never heard of, or vengeance on the nations that have not listened: that is, not obeyed. Both readings are defensible and translations split between them.